China building EMP weapons against US carriers

China's military is developing electromagnetic pulse weapons that Beijing plans to use against U.S. aircraft carriers in any future conflict over Taiwan, according to an intelligence report made public on Thursday.

Portions of a National Ground Intelligence Centerstudy on the lethal effects of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons revealed that the arms are part of China’s so-called “assassin’s mace” arsenal - weapons that allow a technologically inferior China to defeat U.S. military forces.

EMP weapons mimic the gamma-ray pulse caused by a nuclear blast that knocks out all electronics, including computers and automobiles, over wide areas. The phenomenon was discovered in 1962 after an aboveground nuclear test in the Pacific disabled electronics in Hawaii.

“The DF-21 medium-range ballistic missile has been mentioned as a platform for the EMP attack against Taiwan,” the report said.

Jeremy M H wrote:Seems like a waste of money. Anti-Ship ballistic missiles are a bad enough idea. Putting any sort of nuke to use off of them just invites a counter-strike.

"EMP weapons mimic the gamma-ray pulse caused by a nuclear blast " ... the emphasis on "mimic". The weapon referred to is not a nuclear weapon.

Reading the rest of the story it talks of low-yield nuclear weapons being used to create these EMP burst. The headline is not 100% clear but it seems pretty clear that generating an EMP burst that will impact hardened systems will take nukes of some level.

So big picture, is there anyway China can attack a US carrier and not have things escalate really badly? Do the Chinese really believe that shutting a carrier down without damaging it or killing anyone is going to get it the Nobel Peace prize? If you're at the point of shooting missles at a carrier, you might as well go balls out.

So big picture, is there anyway China can attack a US carrier and not have things escalate really badly? Do the Chinese really believe that shutting a carrier down without damaging it or killing anyone is going to get it the Nobel Peace prize? If you're at the point of shooting missles at a carrier, you might as well go balls out.

Nobel Peace Prize? Hardly. By the time China attacks a US carrier things will already have escalated quite badly. I think the idea would be to avoid them escalating to the point of strategic nuclear weapons exchanges.

No, but it'll be a "no bells (no ahead steaming), and some peace (temporary retreat)" prize...

Pulling such a move could add insult to injury. Imagine the grudging political clout gained by knocking out or keeping at a distance a "formidable" CVBG. The ability to beat someone's navy back without actually destroying or sinking hardware and without wiping out lives should not be dismissed. If China wrecked a USN fleet and killed or irradiated 3,000+ sailors and air personnel (maybe 50 of possible casualties in an effective radius), then it most certainly will invite a US strategic response, and if for any reason the US did not reply, many nations might quickly stop doing business with China, curbing her economic growth or stability. But, to just merely threaten a fleet or stop one and then not bother to sink it, and immobilize it for media to capture it via paid-for satellite footage, that is a prize that would lessen the risk of immediate economic sanctions. If even a whiff of global sentiment is that China -- an that specific case -- had cause to freeze a fleet, it might make it harder for the US to justify attacking land. And, if no Chinese ships are in the zap range, what ships would the USN justify taking out IF hardened/immune weapons could be loosed?

But, if China is smart, for now, any such weapons usage better be only inside China's territorial waters, to avoid benefit of the doubt. Ultimtely, the weapon may be of little value since use too close to Taiwan might just wreck infrastructure too expensively.

EMP is a long standing concept, and was basicly expected in the event of a nuclear exchange. Since basicly the entire current USN was built AFTER the knowlage of nuclear weapons and EMPs was understood, surly the USN has sheilding specifications for EMP to prevent any longer term degredation of it's forces. So the PRC hits a CVBG with an EMP. The battle group should survive reletively unscathed. The USN innores the weapon, and continues operation as if nothing happened?

I fail to see what advantage an EMP weapon might have for China aginst a USC battlegroup. On the other hand, the amount of destruction that could be acomplished by a single nuclear EMP warhead being detonated in the proper location over the 48 US states would be awsome. Such a detonation would invite a full scale counter attack however.

Spock: Life, from lifelessness
McCoy: Dear Lord... What if this thing were used where life already *exists*?
Spock: It would *preclude* such life in favor of its new *matrix*
McCoy. (Incredulous)... Its "new matrix"? Do you have any *idea* what you're saying? ... You green-blooded, INhuman
Spock: (brow upturns)

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Well if the EMP were discharged in maritime areas, there'd be. HELLUVA lot of at-sea rescues to be performed. It would tie up the USN much akin to snipers wounding rather than killing enemy soldiers and nearby civilians. So, unless the USN is on a real kill mission, it will have to take a time-out to conduct rescue ops.

There are high powered microwave generating weapons experiments that are conventional, however their range and power is also quite conventional. There would be little added advantage over simply mounting a conventional warhead. Unless you used a nuclear weapon and were then ablee to cover a broad area, say an area of suspected CV activity, or Taiwan. However clearly the US is capable of doing same-same to the entire PRC and still saving a couple thousand warheads in case the gloves came off. In the US a country wide EMP attack would be an unmitigated disaster with much economic and social upheaval. In China it would likely be the end of centralized government. I doubt this is a direction the PRC communist party wants to go.

I suspect a simple unitary or else conventional cluster munition would be a much better warhead to arm the DF-21 (for naval use).